Harvesting our humanity

As the cooler temperatures at dawn and dusk call time on summer in the Northern Hemisphere, those tending to the land upon which we all depend know the final harvests of the year must happen soon. This week’s Full Corn Moon¹, often in Pisces – the last astrological house of the zodiac – signifies the end of an annual cycle in so many ways.

This is pinnacle harvest season, where we reap what we have sown as seeds of intent earlier in the year.We can observe our metaphorical chickens come home to roost; witness the fruits of our labour and the proof in our various puddings. Both physical and allegorical corn is ripe for picking. It's therefore a pertinent moment in our personal yearly cycles to take stock of and store the good stuff we’ve accrued whilst simultaneously getting rid of anything that might be bruised or rotten to avoid spoiling an entire season's yield.

To a greater or lesser extent we're all bruised or damaged goods of course, and the coming month provides a timely window in which to consign our heartache and disappointments to the returns depot of the past. The wounds of emotional pain are evident around and within us, cruelly inflicted by the patriarchal, cultural malaise that continues to violently impose its cruel, greed motivated default ideology on both planet and people. War, sexual violence and abuse of women and children, poverty, disease, famine, environmental degradation, the climate crisis, and cruelty to animals can send many of us into spirals of emotional despair, often triggering and reopening experiential scars of our own.

Water sign Pisces² is as emotionally charged as an astrological sign can get, so under this Pisces Corn Moon, the tears of pain, anger, and frustration are likely to overflow. With resolute courage, this then is a recommended period in which to contemplate the human catastrophe of suffering: the cage of perception that we continue to lock from the inside in order to challenge it on both a personal and collective basis.

To live is to suffer; to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

(Friedrich Nietzsche)

Our current landscape is of our own making; the proof is indeed in our very own pudding. There is no one or nothing else to blame; blame itself is actually an irrelevance. If we can circumnavigate the pitfalls of hateful judgment, even in the most challenging of circumstances, we are well set to generate the determined capacity to react in a positive manner to whatever we encounter. Such conscious responses foster a sense of self-empowerment and choice where otherwise there might appear to be none.

And, if the signs of positive change aren't currently evident in our own lives and those immediately around us, it could be that we haven't yet found the opportunity or the courage to plant the seeds from which they might germinate. There is never a better moment than now to prepare the soil of our hearts and minds in expectation of bountiful future crops.

This week, it's well worth reminding ourselves of any seeds of positive intent that we did consciously plant in the fertile soil of spring this year. What were our New Year's resolutions? How have those plans worked out? What has been learnt in the process? How many of the questions and challenges we set ourselves remain pertinent, unanswered, or simply forgotten nine months later?

Answers may be found by reflecting on who is actually served by our habitualised, normalised behaviour, although there is often very little 'normal' about it. Is it really us? Is our behaviour a considered reflection of what we truly want; of who and what we are? Quite often it isn't. Mostly we've been duped to think our actions are what we need to be happy. The economic wealth generated by the models of behaviour we employ rarely alleviate the suffering of those in real need. Worse, our societally conditioned decision³ making regularly leads to others being put squarely in harm's way and it's really not a good global look for the 21st Century.

How many of us are prepared, however, to change the self-serving 'lifestyles' to which we've become accustomed in order to contribute to a wider benefit for all? How many of us care enough to give up anything that we mistakenly believe has been hard won when it’s more regularly bestowed by privileged good fortune or the lottery of one’s place of birth?

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

(John Burroughs)

Is it possible for us to become a generation of 'have-nots' by celebrated choice? A population that values clean air, clean food, and clean thinking over the clatter, chatter, and confusion of insatiable consumerist 'norms'.We are all products of our social and economic environments. We are the chickens that have come home to roost, and the coop in which we sit preening our good luck is overflowing with festering piles of our own shit.

So, where do we start to pick up the pieces of our evident self-loathing (self-hatred being the foundation upon which we demean and hate others) and reassemble them into an altogether more positive, immediate vision for our planet and population? How do we begin to clear up the shit and turn it into nutritious, organic compost in which to plant the seeds of a healthy, sustainable future?

The argument goes that in challenging and changing the paradigm of our social and economic circumstances, we can change our collective outlook and behaviour, but where in education or mainstream media coverage are credible supported alternatives? Where are the legitimised, workable role models for future equitable prosperity? International, global economies have little vested interest in what happens in localities and communities, so by necessity we must create those models ourselves...and now. Buy local, buy organic, buy second-hand. Repair, recycle, reuse. It's a start.

In the re-membering of our unified origin and humanity's inherent interdependence is the beginning of the end for the discriminatory lines of division separating us from our collective planetary birthright of paradise on Earth. It can be the dawn of a great healing. Recognition (or not) that our conditioned, unthinking behaviour cannot be divorced from the consequences of planetary blight for others will be the signature of our times. Chaos theory⁴ might have fallen from recent science headlines, but its mathematical assertions of universal interconnectedness hold true – karma by any other name.

Instant karma: A circumstance where the actions of a person backfire by causing an immediate, unforeseen, and unintended effect that may be deemed just deserts for those actions.⁵

Our ultimate potential as a species and an integral part of Earth's biosphere lies together in harmonious diversity, respecting and nurturing self and each other. Until we understand that we are our neighbour and that there is no more rational or sensible action in life than to treat that neighbour as we would want to be treated ourselves, we will continue to roost in and choke on the fresh harvest of our own unprocessed crap. It really is time to stop shitting on our own doorstep, because ours is truly the threshold to everyone else's home.

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.

(Coretta Scott King)

Just as importantly, we can harness the emotional charge of this Pisces Corn Moon to connect with the simple joys in life that cost no one: life's perpetual win wins. A kind word or a smile; an act of generosity towards those in genuine need; a trusting volunteered hand in the neighbourhood; a listening ear or comforting presence; a move towards contrition or, more importantly, forgiveness; a personal commitment to cause no harm in thought, word or deed; afternoon naps; growing some late-in-the-year veggies; evening walks in nature; open, intimate conversations from the heart; a home-cooked meal from hand-picked organic produce; an early night with a good friend; creative activities, whether written, drawn, painted, sculpted, sung or danced; all steeped in the existential marinade of love.

These aspects of our lives, vital to our well-being, are not pipe dreams forged in the manufactured fog of consumerism that threatens the essential, life-supporting biodiversity across Planet Earth. They are not idols at whose altar we would debase or sacrifice our happiness. They are not yardsticks of success with which we can beat ourselves. No. They are inherent aspects of being both human and humane, instantly observable as beneficial to all and worthy of defending. They are no less than the paradise we would wish for ourselves and should therefore wish for everyone else. Let's nurture our most progressive, happiest dreams toward that singularly beneficial harvest.